Editable web pages are becoming more and more common on the Internet. An editable web page (sometimes called a wiki) is a page of a website that allows visitors of the page to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change available content. An editable web page enables users to write documents in a simple markup language using a web browser. Users may add links to other pages to an editable web page. A defining characteristic of editable web page technology is the ease with which users can create and update web pages. Many edits can be made in real time, and appear online almost instantaneously. Often, there is no review before modifications are accepted. Many editable web pages are open to the public without the need to register any user account. Private editable web page servers require user authentication to edit, and sometimes even to read, editable web pages and provide greater security and authenticity to the content. The overall ease of interaction and operation makes an editable web page an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring and distribution of up-to-date information.
The manner in which users edit content varies among editable websites. Simple editable websites allow only basic text formatting, whereas editable websites that are more complex have support for tables, images, formulas, or even interactive elements such as polls and games. Many basic editable websites consider HyperText Markup Language (HTML) too difficult for inexperienced users to manipulate directly, and therefore only allow users to contribute plain text content to the website. This method severely limits the types of content that users can add to the website. Other intermediate editable websites have created a special language that users can use to add formatted content. For example, one convention is to treat an asterisk (*) before an item as a user request to add that item to a bulleted list. This method allows users to add more types of content, but requires that the users learn the special language and limits the users to the types of content that the language provides. More advanced editable websites allow users to edit HTML directly. Making typical HTML source code visible makes the actual text content very hard to read and edit for most users. Allowing users to edit HTML also allows users to add potentially malicious or inappropriate content to a website. For example, a user can add a link that displays one target piece of content, but actually navigates to another piece of content when a user clicks on the target link. Allowing users to edit HTML directly also reduces the consistency between editable web pages that are part of the same editable website because it is difficult to enforce one standard for editing or formatting the HTML code.
Some recent wiki engines use a different method: they allow “WYSIWYG” (What You See Is What You Get) editing, usually by means of JavaScript or an ActiveX control that translates graphically entered formatting instructions, such as “bold” and “italics,” into the corresponding HTML tags. In those implementations, the markup of a newly edited HTML version of the page is generated transparently, and the user is shielded from these technical details. This method provides many formatting options to the user with great ease of use. WYSIWYG editors work well with standard Internet content types such as text, photographic images, and video.
Dynamic content is becoming more and more common on the Internet and user demand to incorporate such content on editable web pages is growing, creating a new set of challenges for editable platforms. For example, an author of an editable website may want to include data such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds (also occasionally known as Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary feeds), stock quotes, weather, or even seismic data that changes frequently. Manually editing the web page every time the dynamic content changes would create a substantial burden on the author of the page. For the sake of consistency, it is important that dynamic updates to content be reflected on available versions of editable web pages. To preserve the WYSIWYG paradigm, which allows users to make direct changes to content, the WYSIWYG platform would need to accommodate rapidly changing data feeds such as RSS and RDF.
There is a need for a system that solves the problems outlined above, as well as one that provides additional benefits.
The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed invention.